Pakistani Province of Punjab

Punjab is The Largest Province by Population in Pakistan

Punjab is Pakistan's most populous province with an estimated population of 101,391,000 as of 2015 and Punjab has an area of 205,344 sq km and it is the 2nd largest province after Balochistan and is located at the northwestern edge of the geologic Indian plate in South Asia. The province is bordered by Azad Kashmir to the north-east, the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan to the east, the province of Sindh to the south, the province of Balochistan to the southwest, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, and the Islamabad Capital Territory to the north. The capital and largest city is Lahore which was the historical capital of India during the Moghul times. Other important cities of Punjab include Gujrat, Multan, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Jhelum and Rawalpindi. Punjab is a mainly a fertile region along the river valleys. While in the southern belt deserts of Cholistan is a bare land. The landscape is amongst the most heavily irrigated on earth and canals can be found throughout the province. Weather extremes are notable from the hot and barren south to the cool hills of the north. The foothills of the Himalayas are found in the extreme north as well.

The Lahore, capital of Punjab is a cultural centre of Pakistan where the country's cinema industry, and much of its fashion industry, is based. Punjab literally means the land of 5 rivers term refers to the 5 rivers flowing thru the region. Due to its rivers of Punjab is the most fertile and most populated province of Pakistan. People speak Punjabi here and have many colorful traditions and culture of Punjab is very rich. Punjab is considered most developed, populous, and prosperous province of Pakistan having about 60% of the country's total population being placed in it.

In 1947, the Punjab province of British India was divided along religious lines into West Punjab and East Punjab. Western Punjab was equated into the new country of Pakistan, while East Punjab became a part of modern-day India. This resulted in massive rioting as both sides committed atrocities against fleeing refugees. The part of the Punjab now in Pakistan once formed a major region of British Punjab, and was host to a large minority population of Punjabi Sikhs and Hindus up to 1947 apart from the Muslim majority. Migration between India and Pakistan was continuously before independence. By the 1900s Western Punjab was predominantly Muslim and supported the Muslim League and the Pakistan Movement. After independence, the minority Hindus and Sikhs migrated to India while Muslim refugees from India settled in the Western Punjab and across Pakistan. Since the 1950s, Punjab industrialised rapidly. Modern factories were established in Lahore, Sargodha, Multan, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Sialkot and Wah. In the 1960s, the new city of Islamabad north of Rawalpindi.

 Agriculture remains the largest sector of Punjab's economy. The province is the breadbasket of the country as well as home to the largest ethnic group in Pakistan, the Punjabis. Unlike neighbouring India, there was not any large-scale redistribution of agricultural land. As a result, most rural areas are characterized by a small set of feudalistic land-owning families. In the 1950s, there was tension between the eastern and western halves of Pakistan. To address the situation, a different formula resulted in the abolition of the province status for Punjab in 1955. It was merged into a single province of West Pakistan. In 1972, after East Pakistan seceded and became Bangladesh, Punjab again became a province. Punjab witnessed major battles between the armies of India and Pakistan in the wars of 1965 and 1971. Since the 1990s, Punjab hosted several key sites of Pakistan's nuclear program such as Kahuta. It also hosts major military bases such as at Sargodha and Rawalpindi. The peace process between India and Pakistan, which began in earnest in 2004, has helped pacify the situation. Trade and people-to-people contacts through the Wagah border are currently starting to become common. Indian Sikh pilgrims visit holy sites such as Nankana Sahib. Starting in the 1980s, large numbers of Punjabis migrated to the Middle East. Britain, Spain, Canada and the United States for economic opportunities, forming the large Punjabi diaspora. Business and cultural ties between the United States and Punjab are growing.

Punjab is Pakistan's most industrialised province with the industrial sector making up 24% of the province's gross domestic product and its manufacturing industries produce textiles, sports goods, heavy machinery, electrical appliances, surgical instruments, vehicles, auto parts, metals, sugar mill plants, aircraft, cement, agricultural machinery, bicycles and rickshaws, floor coverings, and processed foods. In 2003, the province manufactured 90% of the paper and paper boards, 71% of the fertilizers, 69% of the sugar and 40% of the cement of Pakistan.

Punjab gets the largest economy in Pakistan, contributing most to the national GDP. The province's economy has quadrupled since 1972. its share of Pakistan's GDP was 54.7% in 2000 and 59% as of 2010. It is particularly dominant in the service and agriculture sectors of Pakistan's economy. With its contribution ranging from 52.1% to 64.5% in the Service Sector and 56.1% to 61.5% in the agriculture sector. It is also a major manpower contributor because it has the largest pool of professionals and highly skilled manpower in Pakistan. It is also dominant in the manufacturing sector, though the dominance is not as huge, with historical contributions ranging from a low of 44% to a high of 52.6%. In 2007, Punjab achieved a growth rate of 7.8% and during the period 2002-03 to 2007-08, its economy grew at a rate of between 7% to 8% per year. and during 2008-09 grew at 6% against the total GDP growth of Pakistan at 4%. Punjab is known in Pakistan for its relative prosperity, and has the lowest rate of poverty amongst all Pakistani provinces. A clear divide is found between the northern and southern portions of the province with poverty rates in prosperous northern Punjab amongst the lowest in Pakistan, while some in south Punjab are among the most impoverished. Punjab is among South Asia's most urbanized regions with approximately 40% of people living in urban areas. Its human development index rankings are high relative to the rest of Pakistan. Punjab is well known in Pakistan for its relatively liberal social attitudes. The province has been greatly influenced by Sufism, with numerous Sufi shrines spread across Punjab which attract millions of devotees annually. The founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak, was born in the Punjab town of Nankana Sahib near Lahore. Punjab is equally the site of the Katasraj Temple, which features prominently in Hindu mythology. Several UNESCO World Heritage Sites are located in Punjab, including the Shalimar Gardens, Lahore Fort, the archeological excavations at Taxila, and the Rohtas Fort.

Punjab's landscape consists most of fertile alluvial plains of the Indus River and its four major tributaries in Pakistan, the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej rivers which traverse Punjab north to south - the fifth of the five waters of Punjab, the Beas River, lies exclusively in the Indian state of Punjab. The landscape is amongst the most heavily irrigated on earth and canals can be found throughout the province. Punjab also includes several mountainous regions, including the Sulaiman Mountains in the southwest part of the province, the Margalla Hills in the north near Islamabad, and the Salt Range which divides the most northerly portion of Punjab, the Pothohar Plateau, from the rest of the province. Sparse deserts can be found in southern Punjab near the border with Rajasthan and near the Sulaiman Range. Punjab also contains part of the Thal and Cholistan deserts. In the north, Punjab's elevation reaches 2,291 metres near the hill station of Murree, which is surrounded by lush and dense forest. Most areas in Punjab experience extreme weather in foggy winters, often accompanied by rain. By mid-February the temperature starts to rise; springtime weather continues until mid-April, when the summer heat sets in.

The onset of the southwest monsoon is anticipated to reach Punjab by May. But since the early 1970s the weather pattern has been irregular. The spring monsoon has either skipped over the area or has caused it to rain so hard that floods have resulted. June and July are oppressively hot. Although official estimates rarely place the temperature above 46 °C, newspaper sources claim that it reaches 51 °C and regularly carry reports about people who have succumbed to the heat. Heat records were broken in Multan in June 1993, when the mercury was reported to have risen to 54 °C. In August the oppressive heat is punctuated by the rainy season, referred to as barsat, which brings relief to its wake. The hardest part of the summer is then over, but cooler weather does not come until late October. Recently the province experienced one of the coldest winters in the last 70 years. Punjab's regional temperature ranges from −2° to 45 °C, but can reach 50 °C,122 °F, in summer and can touch down to −10 °C in Winter. Climatically. Punjab has three major seasons. Hot weather, April to June, when the temperature rises as high as 110 °F. Rainy seasons, July to September. Average rainfall annual ranges between 96cm sub-mountain regions and 46cm in the Plains. Cooler, Foggy and mild weather, October to March. temperature goes down as low as 40 °F. weather extremes are notable from the hot and barren south to the cool hills of the north. The foothills of the Himalayas are found in the extreme north as well, and features a much cooler and wetter climate, with snowfall common at higher altitudes.

The major and native language spoken in the Punjab is Punjabi, which is written in a Shahmukhi script in Pakistan and Punjabis comprise the largest ethnic group in country. Punjabi is the provincial language of Punjab. There is not a single district in the province where the Punjabi language is mother-tongue of less than 89% of the population. The language does not receive any official recognition in the Constitution of Pakistan at the national level. Punjabi dialects spoken in the province include Majhi, Standard, Saraiki and Hindko. Punjabi Saraiki is mostly spoken in southern Punjab, and Pashto, spoken in some parts of north west Punjab, especially in Attock district and Mianwali district near Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Government of Punjab is a provincial government in the federal structure of Pakistan, is based in Lahore, the capital of the Punjab province. The Chief Minister of Punjab is elected by the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab to serve as the head of the provincial government of Punjab, Pakistan. The current Chief Minister is Shahbaz Sharif, who became the Chief Minister of Punjab is being restored after Governor's rule starting from 25 February 2009 to 30 March 2009. Thereafter got re-elected as a result of 11 May 2013 elections. The Provincial Assembly of the Punjab is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the province of Punjab, which is located in Lahore in eastern Pakistan. The Assembly was established pursuant to Article 106 of the Constitution of Pakistan as having a total of 371 seats, with 66 seats reserved for women and eight reserved for non-Muslims. There are 48 departments in the Punjab government. Each department is headed by a Provincial Minister, politician and a Provincial Secretary, a civil servant of usually BPS-20 or BPS-21. All Ministers report to the Chief Minister, who is the Chief Executive. All Secretaries report to the Chief Secretary of Punjab, who is usually a BPS-22 Civil Servant. Chief Secretary in turn reports to the Chief Minister. In addition to these departments, there are several Autonomous Bodies and Attached departments that report directly to either the secretaries or the Chief Secretary.

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